February 16, 2016

Establishment not getting it

The establishments in both the GOP and Democratic parties don't get it. They think that business as usual is fine. But on main streets across America, people see that the status quo - business as usual - is not working. Jobs are disappearing even though unemployment is supposedly under 5%. People still working are finding it harder and harder to maintain their own status quo inflation is supposedly low. But the establishment people seem interested in maintaining their own status and interests and are tone deaf to everyone else. Interestingly, they seem to not realize the interdependence of all people. To the business elite a customer is a customer - it doesn't matter if it's someone in Asia, Europe or North America. A government is a government - regardless of where it is or what it is founded on (democracy, totalitarianism, whatever(. That's because they are rich and powerful and they believe that they can bribe or work with these governments regardless of how others are affected.

There is evidence in the offshoring of jobs. There is evidence in the political corruption of people like Charles Rangel. They see themselves as above the law.

In the Democratic party after two states have caucused or had their primaries Hillary Clinton leads in delegates for her nomination. Given that she won Iowa by a hair and lost in a rout in New Hampshire, how is that possible? Superdelegates.

After the 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Party made changes in its delegate selection process...to make the composition of the convention less subject to control by party leaders and more responsive to the votes cast during the campaign for the nomination.

Some Democrats believed that these changes had unduly diminished the role of party leaders and elected officials...

In 1982, the Hunt Commission recommended and the Democratic National Committee adopted a rule that set aside some delegate slots for Democratic members of Congress and for state party chairs and vice chairs.[7] Under the original Hunt plan, superdelegates were 30% of all delegates, but when it was finally implemented for the 1984 election, they were 14%. The number has steadily increased, and today they are approximately 20%.[8]

...In February of 2016, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, was asked by CNN's Jake Tapper, "What do you tell voters who are new to the process who say this makes them feel like it's all rigged?" Schultz's response was, "Superdelegates exist really to make sure that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grass-roots activists."[16] This clarification was hailed by Clinton supporters as a wise policy to maintain steady, experienced governance, and derided by Sanders supporters as the establishment thwarting the will of the people.

On the GOP side there is a concerted effort to to ensure anyone that is not an establishment candidate (Trump, Cruz, Carson, Fiorina) does not win the nomination. The establishment Republicans can argue that it is being done to protect the growth and stability of America from its radical fringes and to avoid abrupt changes that could topple what has been built and what is being built upon it. But ultimately this has been leading to it's own eventual implosion.
Peggy Noonan is right.

We’re in the midst of a rebellion. The bottom and middle are pushing against the top. It’s a throwing off of old claims and it’s been going on for a while, but we’re seeing it more sharply after New Hampshire. This is not politics as usual, which by its nature is full of surprise. There’s something deep, suggestive, even epochal about what’s happening now.

The self-interest of the establishment class has translated into an aversion to the common good for the GOP and a fear of the common man for the Democrats.

...some members of the Democratic elite see Sanders as unelectable due to his self-proclaimed democratic socialism and age, among other factors. Why step aside and allow him the nomination?

“They probably see this as an example of why superdelegates were created in the first place. If the voters want to commit political suicide, the party leaders can step in and restore reason,” writes Martin Longman at the Washington Monthly, sarcastically.

Both political parties have institutionalized attitudes that have imbued the country with laws which allow or even encourage the rich to leave with their assets and jobs. They are unintentionally, or unconcernedly mandating successor states with more freedom to invest spring up in place of America.

There are plenty of examples on both sides of the aisle that indicate these attitudes exist. The protection of illegal immigrants as a voting block - coupled with a desire cheap labor at the expense of domestic workers ensure that illegal immigration doesn't stop. . Red tape strangles small businesses but is manageable by super-firms ensures a lack of competition for establishment businesses happy with the status quo.

Reagan once said a raising tide lifts all boats. But this is no longer the situation in America. Elites on both sides of the political aisle have ensured that the rising tide only lifts the yachts, and the other boats will instead take on water. What's needed is a shake-up. Unless America is full of boiling frogs, it's going to happen this election cycle. The next president is more and more likely to be Trump or Cruz or Sanders. Unless those super-delegates have their way.

But even if one of those men win, there are still an enormous number of hurdles to overcome before America is set on the right path (or even further down the wrong path).